By Emil Guillermo

COMMENTARY

The economy may be the No. 1 issue in the upcoming election. But it’s still a mystery. How can inflation be normalizing around 3%, going down from its peak from earlier this year, and prices are still going up?

The data shows the economy is good, even better. But personally, most of us feel worse.

Why? Because all the data is useless.

The economy is a psychological thing. You got a fat wallet. You feel good. You got a skinny wallet, you feel bad. When it’s always skinny, you look for a political scapegoat—the incumbent.

Most elected officials will never know that because I doubt, they ever think twice when going shopping for food.

Would they ever put back an item because it cost 20% more than the last time? Instead of a dollar, that thing in their basket is a $1.20. Do they put it back for the store brand?

I don’t know for sure. But I doubt you’ll see anyone putting back sirloin for ground chuck. Or trade the meat for the soup bones.

Frankly, I’d put all of it back. I’m vegan.

But my point is many elected officials don’t seem to feel what we feel in real life.

Can you see Trump pumping gas—and caring about it?

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Or Biden at the checkout counter perplexed saying, “Ah, I thought those were a BOGO–‘Buy one get one’ free?”

That’s the level of honesty you’ll never see in a debate or in any exchange with a politician.

Because they aren’t ordinary folk.

If you watched the Republican debate this week, notice how far removed any of them are from any of us.

Even the ones that look like you and me.

Do you relate to Tim Scott, the Black conservative, whose strategy is to be the “nice” Black man? Specifically, he’s the “nice” Black man who is even nice to Donald Trump.

For Asian Americans, we have Vivek Ramaswamy who wants to be the second coming of Trump. He will gladly get rid of the Juneteenth holiday as being extraneous. If elected, Ramaswamy will repeat every hateful thing Donald Trump did the last time. With pleasure.

But who talks about flinching at the grocery store checkout, turning in a brand-name for a store brand? Who from the campaign stump is ready to be that normal, that honest?

And that’s why the political message of the week isn’t likely to be anything that was said on a debate stage.

Biden on the Picket Line

Rather, it’s the symbolic gesture of Pres. Joe Biden making history going to Michigan to become the first president to ever join a union picket line.

Hard to believe that’s never happened before.

But it finally did this week.

“You guys, the UAW (United Auto Workers), saved the auto industry in 2008,” said Biden holding a bullhorn. “You made a lot of sacrifices, gave them a lot. Companies were in trouble. Now they’re doing incredibly well. And guess what? You should be doing incredibly well, too.”

Biden stood on the picket line for the workers’ wage and benefit demands. And then he handed the bullhorn to Shawn Fain, the UAW president, who talked about how the union back in WWII built the B-24 Liberator bomber.

“Today, the enemy isn’t some foreign country miles away,” Fain said. “It’s right here. It’s corporate greed…and the true liberator is the working class people. All of you, working your butts off on those lines to deliver great products for our companies.

“We’re the people who make the world run. It’s not the billionaire class. It’s a working class of the billions of people who have been left behind. That’s what this battle is about and we’re changing that.”

Biden, who has centered his campaign on middle class values, stood with the workers as Fain spoke.

That’s why the leading Republican candidate will not be among the also-rans debating in California. Trump, who has a 30 to 40-point lead over his closest rival, will be in Michigan to woo working class voters.

Part of Trump’s surprising victory in 2016 was that he was able to convince working class people that a phony billionaire like him had their best interests at heart.

It was the contradiction that combined with the misogyny factor against Hillary Clinton, that helped Trump win the presidency.

Trump needs to continue to dupe white, blue-collar conservatives into thinking he is their guy.

But what did Trump really do for them? Increase their wages? No. Did he even act as a conservative? No. Cutting taxes to the rich and adding to the federal deficit is not an act of conservatism.

Trump simply appealed to a shameful racist, sexist side of those white, blue-collar voters, who then gladly cast their ballots against their own best interests for Trump.

Will Michigan Trumpers continue to vote in that way? Trump needs them to if he wants to win. If he doesn’t fool them again, it could be the beginning of seeing Trump for what he is: A twice-impeached, thrice criminally indicted former president who has no business running for a second term.

If Michigan shows a softening of support, it will be because of an historic act: The first sitting president ever who stood with striking Americans on a picket line.

It’s more important than you think.

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. See his micro-talk show at www.amok.com

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